West Virginia Book Festival scheduled for October 13 & 14; preliminary list of authors released
Charleston, W.Va.
The seventh annual West Virginia Book Festival will be held October 13 and 14 at the Charleston Civic Center. Festival planners announce that dozens of authors will attend the festival to present programs or readings. Among them are bestselling authors Ann B. Ross, Tawni O'Dell, Chris Crutcher and Carole Boston Weatherford.
The publication of the first Miss Julia book, "Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind" in 1999, set Ann B. Ross on a full-time writing career. This book went through six reprintings in less than a year, and was ranked #9 on the Independent Booksellers' 76 most highly recommended books for 1999. In addition, the book was named to the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers list. The paperback edition of the same book was listed in "The Best Books of the First Five Years" by BookSense, as one of the titles independent booksellers most enjoyed handselling. "Miss Julia Strikes Back," which was published in April, makes the eighth book in the series.
Tawni O'Dell is the New York Times best selling author of novels "Sister Mine," "Coal Run" and "Back Roads," which was also an Oprah's Book Club selection. "Back Roads" is currently in development to be made into a film by Infinity Media. O'Dell was born and raised in the coal-mining region of western Pennsylvania, the territory she writes about with such striking authenticity. After graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in journalism, she spent many years living and working the Chicago area before moving back to Pennsylvania, where she now lives with her husband and two children.
Chris Crutcher is an author and therapy consultant born in Dayton, Ohio, to a WWII bomber pilot and a homemaker. He grew up in Cascade, Idaho, and graduated from Eastern Washington University with a BA in psychology and sociology and a teaching credential. After teaching in Washington State and California, Crutcher became the director of a "last chance" K-12 alternative school in Oakland, Calif., before returning to Spokane to write his first book, "Running Loose," for Greenwillow in 1982. Nine other novels, a collection of short stories and an autobiography followed, all from Greenwillow/HarperCollins. His latest title, "Deadline," is being published this fall. Crutcher's fast-paced fiction - heavily influenced by his work as a therapist and child protection advocate - is known for its expert balance of comedy and tragedy, as well as its unflinching honesty. He has received many awards and is a popular columnist and public speaker, lecturing more than 60 times a year. He makes his home in Spokane, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest.
New York Times best-selling author Carole Boston Weatherford has written 25 books of poetry, nonfiction and children's literature, including "Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom," winner of an NAACP Image Award, Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration and Caldecott Honor Medal. "The Sound that Jazz Makes" won the Carter G. Woodson Award from National Council for the Social Studies, and "Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People" and "Freedom on the Menu: The Greesnsboro Sit-ins" both won North Carolina Juvenile Literature Awards. Her books have also been short-listed by the International Reading and National Council for the Social Studies and named best books of the year by School Library Journal and New York Public Library. A two-time North Carolina Arts Council Writers Fellow, Carole teaches at Fayetteville State University and resides in High Point, N.C., with her family.
Additional authors include: Laura Bowers, Peter Conn, Alena Hairston, Gretchen Laskas, Robert San Souci, Jean Edward Smith, Anna Smucker and several others.
The West Virginia Book Festival is presented by West Virginia Humanities Council, Kanawha County Public Library system, The Library Foundation of Kanawha County, The Charleston Gazette and Charleston Daily Mail.
Exhibitors sought for WV Book Festival
If you would like to be considered as a presenter for the 2008 Festival:
Programs at the festival deal with a wide range of life images and interpretations that are accessible through literature. Although the festival is primarily aimed at readers, there will always be a track of programming for budding writers. Appalachian literature and its function for those of us who live in the region will always be emphasized, but the festival will incorporate authors from other areas of the country, as well.
To be considered as a program presenter, please submit:
- A short biographical sketch.
- Your publishing history.
- A proposal for a program that you would like to present at the festival.
to Pam May.
Your information will be forwarded to the appropriate author selection committee. Our committees have the program schedule finalized by the end of May each year. Any proposals that we receive after the schedule has been finalized will be considered for the next Festival.